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It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

simonwillison.net

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Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#431

Post by shannifin »

schipplock wrote: post #87

I expect that the feature I’ll miss most from Twitter will be the algorithmic timeline! I must be old. I remember a time when people wanted a chronological timeline (on by default). Twitter still offers a chronological timeline, but now that people are migrating to Mastodon, I've come across the wish to have an algorithmic timeline again quite often :). I just find this interesting (I can relate, I find the algorithm…

The availability of the chronological timeline is what's kept me on Twitter; hate the algorithmic. If they ever do away with the chronological, I'm gone.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#432

Post by tchaffee »

dmix wrote: post #421
tchaffee wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good to see you finally backing up your claims with sources. The first source is paywalled though. Yes user-wise they do seem to be doing fine, but I'd like to know where the growth is happening. That's important. The 2nd source has some interesting demographics, but unfortunately doesn't include growth which would be the most interesting to me. Very interesting that their largest user base by far is now in India, wh…

> doesn't mean that folks on HN who threatened to quit FB didn't actually go ahead and do that. Of course it doesn't? Who cares. I deleted my account too but that doesn't mean much. I'm highly skeptical this outrage cycle will go on for long enough to seriously impact their userbase. Absent a proper competitor to Twitter. I've been part of enough internet boycotts of them to be cynical about their odds. Also I'm not…

I'm not having trouble finding Facebook data. Did you get that idea from me asking you to back up your own claims?

Yes paywalls are easy to bypass. It's also a reasonable choice to respect them.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#433

Post by jeroenhd »

hrbf wrote: post #406
jeroenhd wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mastodon doesn't require you to host an instance. You can sign up for an account on any instance of your choosing. Every service offers a choice between "run your own" or "trust someone else". I don't trust Twitter but the people I follow are on there so I guess I'll keep my old account. I trust the Mastodon folks more because they're running on donations, which makes their profit model quite transparent. The differe…

Thanks for the details, of which most I already figured. However, your response does not address the issue of solving content disappearing once the instance goes away. It doesn’t matter if the network itself is alive when the content itself can disappear at any time without warning. If I am correct in this assessment, I can really see no upside besides minutiae regarding an illusion of control to established social m…

If twitter.com goes down, all of twitter is gone. There is no secondary Twitter server or alternative service that you can use to do your day to day tweeting without completely depending on Twitter's centralised API.

If mastodon.social goes down, c.im accounts will still be live and I'll be able to follow them through a mastodon.nl account if I want to. It'll be sad to see the toots from mastodon.social disappear, but most of the Fediverse network will remain online. By segmenting users across different servers, the ecosystem can remain alive despite the collapse of a big server.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#434

Post by WickyNilliams »

madaxe_again wrote: post #224
jdub wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter was already under a cloud while Musk was grandstanding his acquisition stunt. Once he was forced to go through with it, his immediate actions and communication confirmed how much chaos we (users, staff, customers) were in for. Then after one week, awfully mishandled mass layoffs, demands to massively reduce infrastructure costs, etc. Nothing's changed? Sure it has. Trust and confidence are hard to build, easy…

“How much chaos” The only “chaos” I’m aware of is the /b/ N**r spam invasion that occurred one afternoon? The rest seems to just be Musk doing Musk and manufactured outrage (as I really do not understand how $8/mo is breaking the bank for popular celebrities and brands) over charging for validation. Anyway, down with Habbo Hotel.

> The rest seems to just be Musk doing Musk and manufactured outrage

Is it wise to sail the sea with such a captain at the helm? Sure it's the same old boat, and we're heading to the same old destination, with the same old crew. But something is amiss.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#435

Post by jdub »

kcplate wrote: post #424
jdub wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not "bitching about" more people being verified, they're "bitching about" the wanton, clueless vandalism of the verification system.

All I see is a bunch of wealthy and famous folks whining that their little badge of exclusivity has become easily obtainable by the masses for the price of a latte. Boo hoo. Your little blue badge of elitism is now available to the proles, how will you ever cope with such uppityness?

You're projecting your selfish, zero-sum view of the world on other people.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#436

Post by kcplate »

jdub wrote: post #435
kcplate wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I see is a bunch of wealthy and famous folks whining that their little badge of exclusivity has become easily obtainable by the masses for the price of a latte. Boo hoo. Your little blue badge of elitism is now available to the proles, how will you ever cope with such uppityness?

You're projecting your selfish, zero-sum view of the world on other people.

Nope, I am opining about what I have seen and heard from people publicly complaining about it over the last few days since the news came out about the change.

For what it’s worth, if Twitter eliminated the blue checkmark entirely…the exact same people would be complaining about that too. It’s their special celebrity badge that separates them as “valid” from the little people.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#437

Post by kcplate »

tsimionescu wrote: post #430
kcplate wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I see is a bunch of wealthy and famous folks whining that their little badge of exclusivity has become easily obtainable by the masses for the price of a latte. Boo hoo. Your little blue badge of elitism is now available to the proles, how will you ever cope with such uppityness?

Let's make this simple. Old blue checkmark: Twitter confirms that this person is who they claim to be. If an account is called DonaldTrump and has a blue checkmark, Twitter confirms it is the account of the former president. New blue checkmark: Twitter confirms that someone pays 8 dollars every month. If an account is called DonaldTrump and has a blue checkmark, Twitter confirms that someone is paying 8 dollars every…

> So, if you see a tweet from the blue checkmark @DonaldTrump saying "I am running for president", with the new system, you have no idea if the former president has publicly announced he is running again, or if some rando who had 8 dollars to spare wants to make it seem so.

Good! I can’t think of a better way to make Twitter better for the world than to eliminate the elitism.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#438

Post by dmix »

tchaffee wrote: post #432
dmix wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> doesn't mean that folks on HN who threatened to quit FB didn't actually go ahead and do that. Of course it doesn't? Who cares. I deleted my account too but that doesn't mean much. I'm highly skeptical this outrage cycle will go on for long enough to seriously impact their userbase. Absent a proper competitor to Twitter. I've been part of enough internet boycotts of them to be cynical about their odds. Also I'm not…

I'm not having trouble finding Facebook data. Did you get that idea from me asking you to back up your own claims? Yes paywalls are easy to bypass. It's also a reasonable choice to respect them.

Don't mistake a stagnant market for a dying one. If stagnant equalled death then Japan's economy would have been poor long ago.

> I'm not having trouble finding Facebook data. Did you get that idea from me asking you to back up your own claims?

You've asked me repeatedly about geographic and demographic data that Facebook (and plenty of 3rd party data mining sites) post publicly. If you actually care just compare it to other sites and make your own judgement calls.

If Facebook was really dying in the west then we'd be hearing about it. You seem to be using anecdotal data, in my life everyone I know hates Facebook but at least 75% of them use it... especially 90% of the non-technical ones who tend to be the best ad targets. Maybe you're not talking to enough regular people?

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#439

Post by exodust »

acdha wrote: post #396
exodust wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would a team of "accessibility engineers" occupy themselves with every day anyway? Did they build features that will fail unless someone is there to handhold? " Day 2: still accessible? check. Day 3: still accessible? check. ".... Accessibility is important, but once you build a wheelchair ramp into a building, the ramp builders have nothing more to do. Likewise, Twitter remains fairly static, with only minor ch…

> Accessibility is important, but once you build a wheelchair ramp into a building, the ramp builders have nothing more to do Okay, now see how well that wheelchair user can use the elevators and bathrooms. Do you have braille signs everywhere someone goes? Does your building have ambient features which are difficult for people with sensory processing issues? Are there controls which are hard for people with limited…

The building analogy is no longer suitable if you're suggesting the ramp suddenly fails to accommodate new wheelchair designs. The wheelchair design should be your new focus of scrutiny. If the new wheelchair fails to conform to EXISTING ramps found everywhere, the wheelchair is the problem, not the ramp.

Ramps are built according to a strict building code. Your suggestion the ramp might need modifying in only the Twitter building by a dedicated team, doesn't add up when considering all ramps in all buildings.

> there isn’t a point where you’re done

My point is accessibility is inherently part of the design process anyway. Designers are not just making things pretty, clueless to accessibility. After all, Twitter is primarily text. You can always recruit outsiders from time to time, who will stress test and audit. That's a good way to keep on top of accessibility, by getting actual users who need accessibility features, to evaluate your service. But full time in-house? No.

Re: It looks like I’m moving to Mastodon

#440

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

tchaffee wrote: post #425
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You claimed to know such data. Can you please give a link to the message where I claimed to know such data?

Sure: > Trump provided a lot of engagement and popularity to the platform, so banning him was igealogy-driven and was very much against their business interests. You either have those engagement numbers or you don't. Which is it? You either know how much advertising revenue he generated -or- how much he drove away. Or you don't. You either have evidence that banning him was against their business interests or you are…

So can't provide a link, and with your lie exposed, went into to panic mode, trying to pass your (false) assumptions as a claim I never made, ok.
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